Monday, January 22, 2007

The Moon Tower, The Resident, The Walker

These towers were built like in 1895 or something. They were originally gas lamps. The farmers, all this used to be farm land by the way. The farmers were worried that the lights would cause the plants to grow 24 hours a day. Back then, someone had to climb up to the top everyday and light the lamps.

I have lived here for 25 years. Not 25 consecutive years, because this property has been a rental for the last 50 or so. I have seen a lot. I was here when they completely tore down the moon tower, only to rebuild it for the 100 year anniversary. To celebrate they had a parade with floats and they shut down Speedway.

The people that lived here before me used to hang out in the yard. They made all the improvements out in the lawn. They even tried to talk the landlord into trimming the bushes and trees back so you could really see the moon towers light diffuse through the branches.

Once a month some drunk kid tries to climb the tower. My friend also climbed up there. From the top you can see all way to the I-35 overpass. You can see the top of the steeple at Hyde Park Baptist. When, you’re up there, you just have to scream out, which, alerts the police and two minutes later they’re waiting for you at the bottom. They all get arrested.

There was once, about two years ago when a kid got fried up there. The power lines got too close to the tower and the kid had his limbs burnt off when he hit the pavement. The city won’t talk about it, they settled out of court. He had a girl with him that was sitting in this very chair; she’s now down at Shoal Creek. That tells you how bad it was. The biggest worry that we have though is that some bus is going to run into the moon tower and knock it down. That happens every once in a while.

This is usually a quiet neighborhood, but every once in a while some yahoo will run a stop sign and smash into a car coming the opposite direction. The tower used to do a better job lighting the street and stop sign, but then all these damn trees grew.

So here I sit. Watching the world go by. Cars just passing through. People outside walking. I hear the moon tower used to be brighter, now it just is overshadowed by all the streetlights.